Agios Nikolaos Monastery: An Orthodox Monastic Complex in Crete, Greece
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3.9
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Greece
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- Venetian
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Monastery
On this page5 sections
History
Agios Nikolaos Monastery, also called Agios Nikolaos of Zaros, is an Orthodox male monastery in Greece at the outlet of Gafaris Gorge, about 3 kilometres north of Zaros on the southeastern foothills of Psiloritis. Its contemporary buildings surround two churches from the Venetian period, the era of Venetian rule in Crete from the early thirteenth century until the Ottoman conquest in the seventeenth century.
The monastery began as a metochion, a dependent ecclesiastical establishment often managed as an agricultural or livestock-producing property, belonging to Valsamonero Monastery. It was known as Agios Nikolaos at Karopouliana, and a document from 1644 describes it as a dependency devoted to raising livestock.
Agios Nikolaos is now a male monastery under the Metropolis of Gortyn and Arcadia, the Orthodox ecclesiastical jurisdiction for the area. It follows the Julian calendar, a calendar system retained by some Orthodox communities that calculates dates differently from the modern Gregorian calendar. The monastery became a separate settlement under the Municipality of Phaistos in 2011, when nine monks were listed there. The 2021 census also counted nine monks.
Remains
The surviving complex combines contemporary monastic buildings with two single-nave churches from the Venetian period. These churches form the historic architectural core around which the newer structures are arranged.
Historic churches
Church of Saint Nicholas
The Church of Saint Nicholas is dedicated to the Christian saint traditionally regarded as a bishop and protector of sailors. Its interior preserves fourteenth-century wall paintings created in the artistic manner of the Palaiologan period, the final major phase of Byzantine imperial rule associated with the Palaiologos dynasty and notable developments in Byzantine religious painting.
Church of Saint Paraskevi
The second church is dedicated to Saint Paraskevi, an early Christian martyr venerated in the Orthodox tradition. It belongs to the same Venetian-period architectural setting and was restored around 1970.
